Disruptor (19 page)

Sveta said, “I know about Polina. We found
her picture on the…the.” She snapped her fingers, her gaze dancing
around. “Hashtag. The Ghost hashtag. He did that to her, the
bastard with the stun gun. That was him, yes?”

“I need to know everything you can tell me
about him. About the other girls. Where I can look for any of
them.”

Housecat spoke up. “His name is Ilya
Bessonov. Just your average soldier, except for being a brutal
piece of shit, even by Bratva standards. And that’s saying
something.”

“Know where he lives? His hangouts?”

“I’m not exactly welcome in the Heights but I
got people trying to find out that stuff.”

Dani looked at Sveta. “What about the other
girls? Do you know where either of them might have gone?”

Sveta exchanged a look with Housecat before
answering. “Tatiana, she is smart girl. If she can stay away from
Bessonov and the rest, she will be okay. None of us know this city.
We all lived in New York.”

Dani asked quietly, “How did they get
you?”

Sveta shook her head. “It was modeling
contract. Stupid, yes? Tatiana and I, we did a little modeling.
Stock art, I think it’s called. Polina danced in clubs, waited
tables. Masha, she was escort.” Sveta lowered her eyes. “We all did
what we had to do to live.”

Meaning they’d all been sex workers at one
time or another. It didn’t surprise Dani, and she didn’t judge.
“Why did they bring you to Point Sable?”

“They said we weren’t paying them back fast
enough.”

“For passage to America?”

Sveta nodded.

Dani rubbed her palms down her thighs. “So
where’s Masha?”

Another quick look between Sveta and
Housecat. Sveta exhaled slowly then spoke. “Someone saw her in
Cabrini.” That was all she would say.

Silence ticked by for several heartbeats
before Dani rose to her feet. “Okay, what are you guys not telling
me? Out with it.”

Housecat said, “I been looking for the girls
too. No sign of Tatiana yet but a source of mine spotted Masha in
Cabrini.”

Dani spoke as if addressing a slow child. “So
let’s go get her.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“Why the hell not?”

“Because she got caught in Dogtown territory,
and I can’t go there.”

Dogtown. Jesus. “Where in this town can you
go? Your own backyard? Is that it?”

Housecat swore. “I made a deal to stay out of
Dogtown territory and they stay out of mine. I have to honor that
or it’ll cause problems for my people here in Belmont. I don’t want
a gang war.”

Sveta shoved the blankets away and hurried
from the couch. “Right, because one woman is not worth it.”

Housecat rose and took two steps to follow
her but then seemed to think better of it. “It’s not that simple,
Sveta.” She slammed the bathroom door, the sound punctuating his
sentence.

“
Not that simple’s
gonna get old
quick,” Dani said.

“I’ll fix things with her,” he said, as if to
himself. “You been around here long enough to know much about the
Dogtown crew?”

“I know they almost killed someone I…someone
I know. They’re dangerous. Some of them are practically feral.”

“They’re mostly kids. People in that gang,
they don’t live long enough to be much more than kids. They fight
dirty and they’re destructive as shit. I don’t want that in my
neighborhood. It’s a long way from perfect here, but their piece of
Cabrini is Goddamn Thunderdome.”

“And you want me to go in alone and get this
girl Masha out?”

Housecat stared at her hard. “You pinned me
to my desk like it wasn’t nothing. There’s something not natural
about you.”

Dani tried not to flinch but didn’t quite
make it.

Housecat shrugged. “Unless you make problems
in Belmont, I don’t care.”

“Tell me everything you can about where she’s
at and who’s got her.”

He leveled a finger at the bathroom door.
“Let me talk to Sveta for a quick minute, then I’ll give you the
run down.”

Dani paced while she waited. Dogtown
Thunderdome. Shit. This was shaping up to be an ugly night.

Three sharp raps on the passenger side window
startled Kevin out of a hard doze. He snapped his head up, panic
flaring briefly before he saw Dani. He unlocked the door and she
climbed in. “How did it go?”

“Housecat’s keeping one of the girls safe. He
knows where another one is in Cabrini.”

“Is he going with you to get her?”

Dani shook her head. “He can’t. It would
break some kind of gang peace treaty if he went to that area, so I
have to go alone.”

“I’ll go with you.” He reached for the key in
the ignition.

She stilled his hand with her own. “No. You
drop me off, then go home.” She didn’t move her hand from his. He
stayed perfectly still, afraid any movement would remind her they
were touching.

“Look, I’ll stay in the car if you think
that’s best. But you need me to pick you up. You’re going to have
another person with you.”

She was quiet for a long moment, her thumb
moving restlessly over his skin. The slight contact sent tingles
all through his body. Finally she said, “Did the cops tell you
anything about the group that attacked you?”

He swallowed a lump of sudden nausea. “They
thought it was some gang called Dogtown or something.”

“Housecat’s neighborhood in Belmont, hell,
all of Belmont, is a paradise compared to most of the South Side.
The Russians make Lincoln Heights dangerous if you get on their bad
side. Cabrini’s a scary place. The Dogtown crew roam all over
Cabrini and Stockyard. Their home base is a slice of territory
right on the line of Cabrini and Stockyard where everything starts
to look all post-apocalyptic. It is a fucking hellscape. I may be a
badass, but I don’t like going there. You hearing me?”

Kevin heard her, all right. The Point Sable
Police Department would never admit it openly, but they didn’t
patrol Stockyard. Or if they did at all, it was with the occasional
police chopper flyover. The rest of the South Side was rough, even
dangerous. Stockyard – so named because it used to be home to the
city’s meatpacking district back when trains brought cattle to the
market – was a no man’s land.

“How did this girl wind up there?”

Dani removed her hand. “Who the hell knows?
She didn’t know the city so she could have wandered over there
looking for a place to hide out. Could have been snatched right off
the street.”

“What are they doing to her?” Not sure he
really wanted to know the answer.

“Probably pimping her out to anybody with a
few dollars. I can’t leave her in that.”

“I know. There’s probably not much point to
calling the police.”

“I’ve only been here a few months but I never
heard of cops going in there. Besides, she’s illegal. She gets
picked up by cops, she’ll get deported back to whatever shithole in
Russia she came from.” She gestured at the steering wheel.
“Talking’s not going to get this done. Take me as far as the
shelter and I’ll walk from there.”

They rode in silence, tension filling the
vehicle. There’d be no talking her down from this. Part of him
didn’t even want to try. She’d taken on a houseful of Bratva
soldiers and walked out alive. She could do this. Right? She could
do this. Unless she couldn’t. He clenched the steering wheel
tighter, not quite able to work up the nerve to reach for her
hand.

He parked in what had become his customary
spot in the alley behind the shelter. “Got your phone?”

“Yeah.” Her voice was clipped, tight.

“Call me when you’re ready for a pick
up.”

“Go home, Kevin.”

“I’m going to wait here. You call me when
you’ve got her. This car is stupid fast. I can be there in no time
and get you and the girl off the streets.”

Dani let out a soft sigh. “Okay.”

Kevin unclipped his seat belt and leaned
over, planting a quick, firm kiss on her lips. “For luck.”

Dani rested her forehead against his, eyes
closed. “Thank you.” She broke away and climbed out of the car.
Before she closed the door she leaned back inside. “Her name is
Masha.”

“Go get her.”

Dani closed the passenger door and
disappeared.

***

If there was ever a time to embrace the idea
of being a ghost, it was now. Dani kept to the pools of darkness
created by broken street lights, those stretches getting longer and
longer the closer she got to Stockyard. An abandoned factory marked
the far western edge of Cabrini. The next half mile looked like a
war zone. Empty lots full of trash and overgrown weeds. Burned out
buildings and cars. Signage decorated with bullet pockmarks and pot
holes in the street older than she was and big as craters. A rancid
mixture of garbage, human waste, and chemicals burned the air.

She dialed her hearing and night vision
nearly all the way up. As far as she could tell, no one was around.
The tiny hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Acid churned
in her gut and tension pinged along her nerves like an out of tune
piano. This was by far the stupidest thing she’d done yet. Her only
backup was a getaway driver waiting several blocks away. She had
only three weapons: a folding knife in her boot, pepper spray in
her back pocket, and a sixteen inch baton hidden in Kevin’s jacket.
She hadn’t asked for a gun for this, and he hadn’t offered. Hell,
she’d had less than that going into the house in Lincoln
Heights.

Well, she did have one more weapon:
herself.

A howl sounded in the distance, starting up a
call and response between several of the wild dogs that gave the
area its nickname. She stepped up her pace, heading southwest.
She’d never been this far into Stockyard and Dogtown territory but
she had a general idea of where to find what the gang used as their
headquarters.

Another two blocks and her enhanced hearing
picked up the sounds of a party. The smells of smoke and weed were
soon strong enough to cover the fetid stench. Dogtown central was
located in what used to be a slaughterhouse decades ago. It was
known as the Killing Floor.

Barrels formed a rough perimeter around the
structure, some of them lit with fires. Dani skirted around to the
north side of the building, listening for feminine voices and
especially Russian. Little was left of the original equipment. It
had all been sold off or stolen ages ago. Big opens rooms and a
leaky roof didn’t make for very grand accommodations, but she’d
seen people living in worse. She wasn’t sure if it was her
imagination, because of what the building used to be, but she
thought she could detect the stale, coppery scent of old blood.

An entrance big enough for loading and
unloading trucks no longer had any kind of door. Five young guys
stood gathered around a burning barrel just outside the entrance,
talking and sharing a bottle. Their ages were indeterminate. She’d
never come across a member of Dogtown who looked older than
twenty-five. They were Lost Boys in a post-apocalyptic Neverland,
if the Lost Boys had been vicious killers and their apocalypse the
complete and utter devastation of their lives practically since
birth due to drugs or abuse or abandonment. Part of her
sympathized. A few more wrong turns in her own life and she could
have wound up just like them.

No, that wasn’t true. She could have wound up
used, chewed up and spit out by the likes of them. There were no
girl members of the Dogtown crew, just girls they sold drugs to,
girls they pimped, girls they hooked on drugs so they could pimp
them out. Girls they used for their own amusement. Any sympathy
she’d briefly entertained died with that thought.

Hiding in the tall grass of the open lot that
butted up against the property, Dani crept away from the group. An
unguarded entrance was what she needed. No sense in starting the
fight any sooner than she had to. Finally she spotted the hole
where a window used to be. She waited, listening, watching, to make
sure she wouldn’t get caught. Satisfied, she dashed into the open.
Flat against the brick façade, she repeated the process. Wait,
listen and watch, move. She found toeholds in the crumbling brick
and lifted herself up and through the window.

The space was dark and devoid of people. Her
night vision showed scattered debris and makeshift pallets on the
floor. The room stunk of urine and spoiled food. Sleeping in the
streets would probably be cleaner. Whoever their leader was took
shitty care of these kids. She kept to the walls and made her way
to the room’s only door. The hall was clear.

Music and laughter came from the center of
the building. There were so few lights, she wondered if their only
power was from a stolen generator. Crouched in the hall, she worked
on fine-tuning her hearing until she could pick out individual
voices and put rough locations to them. Mostly male voices in the
central gathering, with a few girls. One of them was crying softly.
Dani’s concentration wavered. She clenched one hand into a fist and
gave her thigh a moderate punch to force herself to focus.

Minutes ticked by. In that time she heard a
lot of ugly stuff, a lot of stupid stuff, and finally a girl
speaking with a thick Russian accent.

On the other side of the building. Where
there were no windows or doors.

The poor lighting, her night vision, and her
speed would all work in her favor. If everyone was too drunk or
high to notice her, that would be great, too. She didn’t know who
to ask for a boon such as that, so she just took a deep breath and
went for it.

Light on her feet, she stuck to the shadows
and made her way carefully, slowly, through the building. She
stayed as far from the party as possible and reached her
destination. A group of rooms that might have been business offices
at one time had sheets and blankets hanging up instead of doors.
Snoring came from behind one blanket, the sounds of a couple having
sex from another.